February 2012
9 posts
V for Vendetta and the rise of Anonymous →
Alan Moore writes about the surge of Guy Fawkes imagery in protests in the wake of V for Vendetta (both comic and movie).
I don’t think one need subscribe to any quasi-mystical theories about how the conceptual world of ideas can affect the substantial world of everyday existence in order to agree that, in retrospect, this could be seen as practically begging for it.
Fuck those guys
me: man, if someone doesn't know me and just goes off the quotes of mine you put up, i sound just a bit like a dick.
which, come to think of it, might be a little bit accurate.
the_patches: yes, but we are best friends.
so fuck those guys.
January 2012
11 posts
The Big Picture : Monster's Movie →
Moviebob does great stuff on his other show, the Big Picture. In this one, he tells the story of Kim Jong Il’s enslaved moviemaker, whom he forced to make a communist godzilla movie lionizing the North Korean Army.
Yeah, you read that right. Go watch.
The History and Future of Web Protest →
Anil Dash has a great piece regarding what’s next for online activism in the face of the SOPA/PIPA protests.
This is the power we were promised the web would give us. Let’s use it.
Lauren Orsini: File sharing is Magic →
laureninspace:
there’s something wrong with the system when pirating is more convenient than purchasing.
I’ve had similar experiences with shows like Doctor Who; I buy the collected editions when they’re available, but I find other ways to keep up with them in real time. Yes, there’s BBC America, but they frequently don’t air things at the same time, and have...
Loved The Day LOLcats Died #SOPA #PIPA (via Boxee)... →
Every time my dog yawns I’m reminded that in addition to running faster than me and having a higher pain threshold than me, it’s also packing a small armory of knives it can sever bones with.
And yet, somehow, this creature needs me.
Wild.
Dot-dash-diss: The gentleman hacker's 1903 lulz →
A wonderful story of early hacking (really, really early hacking) in a true hacker’s spirit—uncovering security flaws for the public.
Minutes before Fleming was due to receive Marconi’s Morse
messages from Cornwall, the hush was broken by a rhythmic ticking
noise sputtering from the theatre’s brass projection lantern, used to
display the...
Physicists Seek To Lose The Lecture As Teaching... →
Great article on the lack of value in a lecture.
The lecture is one of the oldest forms of education there is.
“Before printing someone would read the books to everybody who
would copy them down,” says Joe Redish, a physics professor at
the University of Maryland.
But lecturing has never been an effective teaching technique and
now that information is...
Irene Adler: how to butcher a brilliant woman... →
There are spoilers for “A Scandal in Belgravia”, the most recent BBC Sherlock ep in both the link and the blockquote below. Stop reading if you give a damn.
I really like the new BBC Sherlock, and I’ll say that I really enjoyed the most recent episode, “A Scandal in Belgravia”. But on later analysis, the episode was not without its flaws.
Everything goes...
More
thepatches:
Instead of making fancy and involved New Years’ Resolutions that I will forget in a month, I will make one simple one: More.
Cook more
Climb More
Write More
Watch More Anime
Read More Books
I just want to do more. More more more.
You can replace the climbing one with biking and the anime one with finishing other projects of mine, and the basic theme is the same.
Of...
December 2011
11 posts
“ghosts with power cords”
– Avery Edison
on new science and research - cyberpunkture →
This is a great article on a new directions for science research and publishing. From a guy who actually has been dealing with it for the last few years.
…pointing to the fact that we’re not taking enough advantage of technology is the success of the polymath projects in leveraging a distributed and open group of people to solve hard math problems by letting them easily collaborate on...
Manic Pixie Dream Boy?
So last night in a conversation that was sort of all over the place, I ended up explaining the concept of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl to a friend1.
Intrigued, he apparently googled it at home, and found out that it’s been subverted—or at least lampshaded—in a few movies.
Which made me wonder. Hollywood loves being “creative” by doing the obvious inversion of a...
xkcd: Dreams →
This is an old favorite, and every now again worth remembering explicitly.
The infinite possibilities each day holds should stagger the mind. The sheer
number of experiences I could have is uncountable, breathtaking, and I’m
sitting here refreshing my inbox. We live trapped in loops, reliving a few
days over and over, and we envision only a handful of paths laid out ahead of
us....
“"Need” is such a bourgeoise concept”
– A coworker of mine
A Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction Design →
I’m a bit late on this, but Bret Victor has a fantastic screed up about the recent “Future Vision” video that made the rounds not too long ago.
I call this technology Pictures Under Glass. Pictures Under Glass sacrifice all the tactile richness of working with our hands, offering instead a hokey visual facade.
Is that so bad, to dump the tactile for the visual? Try this:...
Your Code Sucks and I Hate You →
Some years ago a coworker of mine, Jonathan Lange, put out a paper on code review.
Some reviews are involuntary. These tend to happen late at night when a programmer is deciphering code in an obscure corner of the project, perhaps trying to fix a bug. These code reviews are often characterized by coarse language, angry comments and are generally unhelpful to the original author, who might not...
November 2011
19 posts
The 'Batman: The Animated Series' Opening Is The... →
Over at Comics Alliance, Chris Sims puts together a really great argument about why the Batman opening is one of the best pieces of animation ever.
With all the episodes of Batman: The Animated Series that I was watching in order to put together ComicsAlliance’s list of the ten best episodes, I kept seeing that opening sequence over and over. And rather than getting bored with it or...
Here's your fucking jetpack →
Man in jetpack races real jet aircraft - videoSwiss pilot Yves Rossy flies a spectacular formation flight alongside two Albatross jets over the Swiss Alps. His custom-built jet suit weighs 54kg and can travel at speeds in excess of 125mph. Rossy used to fly fighter jets for the Swiss air force and in 2006 became the first and only man in the history of aviation to fly with a jet-propelled...
WatchI love “The Big Picture” for so many reasons, but one is how MovieBob expertly talks about comics and all the many fucked up things that happen in them.
This one is a great piece about Ms. Marvel, who is honestly one of the more fraught super heroes in Marvel Comics. Worth the 5 minutes.
Hat Coil - Tesla Coil On A Hat -... →
“We all — in the end — die in medias res. In the middle of a story. Of many...”
– Mona Simpson